The Poetry Marathon

Dear Nanny,

I have the timer from your kitchen drawer,
white sand still sliding through in tiny grains.
Time is trapped in plastic, a green jewel –
A prism that mirrors and fractures light.

This object rested on your window sill,
looking out at green grass and bird feeders,
A washing line, a swing for the children.
Time moves on though you are no longer here.

Time for breakfast, time for toast and honey.
Smiles and sugar. Treats from the biscuit tin.
Now and then I turn the thing upside down.
I feel the weight of your love in my hand.

He wanted notoriety.
With keys.
to create doors for himself
to shine and outshine
A new name, even
for the world to remember.
He wants and wants.

But fame is a brittle mistress.
Walk on her on tenterhooks
shattered champagne glass flute
she cuts and cuts him out,
her eye slides on to someone else,
he is desperate
to keep her.
He wants and wants.

There are many answers.
Gold dust, whiskey
drown in his sorrows
despair in his liquid bed
and the echo chamber
of his empty home.
He wants and wants.

Ingredients:

1 quart of self-doubt
1 bag of self-confidence
a dash of lingering
1 carton of tears of self-pity
1 small packet of recklessness

Procedures:

Place self-doubt in a pan on the back burner, over a medium heat until boiling furiously.  Pour into a mug.
Take one bag of self-confidence and dip it in the boiling self-doubt.
Let steep, while you linger.
Open the packet of recklessness, sprinkling it wildly.  Don’t be afraid of knocking the cup over.
Open carton of tears of self-pity, and add liberally until the cup overflows.
Enjoy hot.  Pour any extra on garden or house plants.

There were two of you?  Perhaps.
playgirl and genius.  Both disrobed
professor and viper, in a pageant

So easy to judge because we
love to judge
Because you left behind so many notes.

Asleep under the house, your hibernating
heart cracked open with a chisel
miraculous, begging for lobotomy

Both frantic in the guts and chambers of
a big apple, you choked,
spat it out

Wove a shroud, a mask of letters
for your mother, you
rehearsed and edited life

Paced the street in brutal ice that
froze all the pipes, burst others,
looking for a phone booth

The switch board doesn’t know
where to send your calls
You have no tolerance for pain

Two of you?  Perhaps.
but it took only one oven and
neither called for help.

Hello!  I participated in the marathon last year and it was the highlight of my year.  I got a lot of great material out of it, and valued the the concentrated time for reflection.  I am looking forward to the marathon and to reading others’ work.

Walk this Way

Before you could even walk on your own

We made you dance

No wonder music is your first love

I

How does one begin to talk about the past?

Come in and take off your shoes

Don’t step on anything delicate

There’s lots of that round here

II

My mouth is broken

It has been for quite some time

Sometime I was

                 Trespassed

                 Transgressed

And you can’t put back together

                  A trashed China doll

                  A broken crystal glass

                  A shattered snow globe

                  To the way it was before

Restore it

                   It cannot be returned

Instead it becomes a new object

Jagged edges and fangs

For cutting

                On accident, on purpose

III

It was not pleasant.

That’s okay

It hurt too much.

That’s okay

Dandelion girls, it’s okay now.

Pavement kicker

Dirt digger

Boy kisser

Come on home

What a mess it was.

That’s okay

We made mistakes.

That’s okay, too

Can’t stay all day in the cold.

Honey Hive

Oh perfect, coordinated machinations

Colony in tandem, unison

Self-regulating, cultivating, communicating, replicating

Glowing hexagonal precision

Electric buzz of glass wings

Over factory conditions

Yellow gold waxen beauties

Building the future

Butterfly Garden

The butterflies dance together

Tied by invisible thread

Wings spread in silent flutter

Poppies wait for them to land

Tied by invisible thread

Alight, afloat in the garden

Poppies wait for them to land

Velvet or sage, nasturtium

Alight, afloat in the garden

Tumble with blue damsel fly

Velvet of sage, nasturtium

Blue damsel and bee hurry by

Tumble with blue damsel fly

The butterflies dance together

Blue damsel and bee hurry by

Wing spread in silent flutter

Found Poem, from

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

They will sing to me

Etherized Visions and revisions

I have known deserted streets

Squeezed the universe into corners

Each to each

Time to turn back, prepare a face

Almost ridiculous

A magic lantern